| Public Impeachment of Modern Indian Nabobs | |||
|
|
By: V. Sundaram, IAS
March 17, 2005 
FeedbackRobert Louis Stevenson in his “Ethical Studies” observed: “We all know what Parliament is, and we are all ashamed of it”. The spoils system developed in India after our independence, that practice which turns all public offices, high and low, from public trusts into objects of prey and booty for the victorious party, may, without exaggeration of language, be called one of the great criminals in our modern history, if not the greatest. In the whole catalogue of our national ills today there is none more dangerous to the vitality of our institutions. The Nabobs of the East India Company starting from 1639 in Madras, later in Bombay and Calcutta and different parts of India, till the transfer of power to the Crown in 1858 after the Indian Mutiny in 1857 looted India in a magnificent way. Later, the rape of India continued till 1947. This great record of public pillage continues unabated even today by our elected representatives at all levels of governance. There are 546 members of the Lok Sabha and 245 members of the Rajya Sabha. The total number of members of State Legislatures and Councils is currently 5,269. While there has never been a consensus based on debate and enlightened discussion between these so called representatives of the people on the fundamental and vital issues affecting the life and welfare of the common man in India, there has always been and still is absolute and indivisible unanimity amongst all these Parliamentarians, cutting across party-lines, on the nature and the extent of their own emoluments and perks. I was looking at the entitlements of the Members of Parliament under the Salaries Act. Between 1.6.1954 and 1.12.2004 (50 years) the salaries and allowances of these self-less public servants have gone up by 90 times. A careful look at the details of monetary benefits and other perks admissible to Members of Parliament under the Salaries Act will indicate that the Government pays in cash every month to a member about Rs.36,000/- including salary, daily allowances, etc. of which only the salary of Rs.12,000/- per month attracts income-tax. This can also be avoided by some savings in approved Government Schemes. They pay a nominal license fee for the accommodation in Delhi, which is but a tiny fraction of their rental value. Taking into account the monetary value of other perks like free telephone calls (including STD), mobile telephone, free electricity and water, medical facilities, free air and rail travel in the highest classes, the direct monthly public expenditure on an M.P. comes to the tune of more than Rs.3,25,000/- on a very conservative estimate. This is roughly about 160 times of the per capita income of an average Indian. No attempt has ever been made by this floating crowd to take a considered and long run view of the recurring and non-recurring implications of the monetary emoluments and other perks which they have voted for themselves with democratic alacrity!! In respect of Government employees, a Pay Commission is appointed once in 10 years to look at the recurring and non-recurring implications and re-fixation of pay and other allowances. But in respect of these Members of Parliament and MLAs in the State Legislatures, there is a strong and passionate preference for institutionalized adhocism based on indivisible commitment to unabashed self-aggrandizement. Much of the privileges and perquisites of the MPs, Ex.MPs, Ex.PMs, Ex.Presidents, etc. now look more like Privy Purses connected in no way with any public purpose. In their own approach to their own perks, I can only see an attitude of unrestrained profligacy, a monstrous autocracy based on self-assumed vanity. The way in which people’s representatives have voted benefits for themselves during last 50 years violates all known canons of financial propriety. H.W.R. Wade, the greatest known International Authority on Administrative Law, has said that the basic dictum of Administrative Law is that the approval in principle of any public necessity that requires any outgo from any public treasury should be examined and approved by an authority other than the body likely to be affected or benefited by such decisions. In the case of perks and privileges in respect of all our MPs and MLAs, this power has been usurped by themselves for advancing their own self-interest in violent transgression of all known principles of Administrative Law. In the process, there has been a hijacking of the virgin of Parliamentary Democracy which is without any parallel in world history. IF THESE ARE NOT THE MODERN NABOBS, THEN WHO ARE THEY? I referred to the unrestrained profligacy of our MPs and MLAs. The great irony in our democracy is that while the Central Government and the State Governments are unable to contain the budgetary deficits and the debt burdens, the MPs and MLAs are not deterred in any way from voting more and more benefits for themselves with gusto and enthusiasm. The total debt burden of the Central Government on 1.4.2004 was Rs. 17,24,198.82 CRORES. The total debt burden of the States on 1.4.2004 was Rs. 7,91,400 CRORES. The interest payments alone of the Central Government in 2003-2004 involved an outgo of Rs.1,24,554.92 crores. Development has become a minor sundry activity for all Governments in India. Perks for the MPs and MLAs during the last 50 years have not in any way suffered on account of these Central and State deficits. This may be a matter of great honour for all our politicians. For me, as a private individual of no significance but as a proud Indian citizen, it is a matter of great national disgrace. If this is not a mockery of democracy, then what is it? We have failed to establish an administrative system geared to the promotion of peace, happiness, prosperity and justice for the common man in the street in India. Over 40% of our fellow countrymen are living below the poverty line and are deprived of their fundamental rights. About 90 million of our young men and women are getting crushed under the yoke of unemployment. And yet, we have a wonderful political system where our elected representatives are getting richer and richer every moment every day, ably assisted and abetted by the mafia of mass media, the mafia of the executive, the mafia of the legislature and finally the mafia of the judiciary. Unless there is a bloody revolution like the French Revolution in 1789, or the Chinese Revolution in 1912, or the Russian Revolution in 1917, things are not going to change for the better in India. In this context, I cannot help taking refuge in Modern History. When Warren Hastings was impeached in the House of Commons in 1785, Edmund Burke thundered in the House of Commons: “I accuse you (Warren Hastings) of crimes which have their rise in the wicked dispositions of men – in avarice, rapacity, pride, cruelty, malignity of temper, haughtiness, insolence – in short, in everything that manifests a heart blackened to the very blackest – a heart dyed in blackness – a heart gangrened to the core. We have brought before you the head, the chief, the Captain-General of Iniquity – one in whom all the fraud, all the tyranny of India are embodied, disciplined and arrayed. You are a thief, tyrant, robber, cheat, swindler and I am afraid the English Language does not afford terms adequate to describe in full the enormity of your offences. I impeach you in the name of the Commons’ House of Parliament, whose trust you have betrayed. I impeach you in the name of the English Nation, whose ancient honour you have sullied. I impeach you in the name of the people of India, whose rights you have trodden under foot and whose country you have turned into a dessert. Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of every rank, I impeach you, the common enemy and oppressor of all.” We require nearly 100 Edmund Burkes in our midst on behalf of more than 1100 million people of India to impeach nearly 6000 men (Warren Hastings) in our Parliament and the State Legislatures, who are emasculating the people of India in the name of democracy & social justice. Even in this nationally squalid situation, I would like to brace myself and all my helpless countrymen by deriving inspiration from the following beautiful passage from Prof. Hamson on the Rule of Law: “The solidity of our rights is the visible testimony of the profundity of our determination that justice must be done, must manifestly and plainly be done, must be done not in our case only but for all equally, must appear to be done with certainty and without fail. It is perhaps an odd determination for a nation to have; but I have no doubt that this nation has it. Indeed the strength of that determination is formidable. It has not customarily found vent in disorder or revolution; it is not, as with some people, a sudden passion; it has the greater power of deliberate human purpose intent upon an end with a tenacity which will not be denied. I think that our institutions (and not our legal institutions only) do embody this conviction, do represent (and not so badly either) the result of this conviction at work over a long and not in general discreditable past. And I am persuaded that this conviction still remains, willing to take account of real practical difficulty, capable of much patience but capable also greatly to surprise those who may seek insolently to thwart it or incautiously to neglect it.” Let us all unite together to prove Prof. Hamson right and all our politicians wrong. V. Sundaram, IAS
Send your views to author Do you wish to reach IndiaCause readers? |
Previous
by: V. Sundaram, IAS The tragedy of Indian democracy March 03, 2005 The Dancing Dervish of Goa February 08, 2005 Benny Hinn - Symbol of Secular Adharma January 29, 2005 Beware of Nocturnal Raids January 14, 2005 Was Veer Savarkar ever a Freedom Fighter? December 24, 2004 Our National Degradation December 13, 2004
|